In the field of pharmaceutical manufacturing, for example, a fractionation and purification device using a liquid chromatograph is sometimes used to analyze a compound obtained by chemical synthesis in detail or to store a compound as a compound library. Examples of fractionation and purification devices using such a liquid chromatograph are illustrated in Patent Documents 1 and 2 below.
In a fractionation and purification device of this type, a target component (compound) contained in a sample, for example, is isolated using a liquid chromatograph and is introduced into a trap column as an eluate. As a result, the target component contained in the eluate is captured by the trap column. A solvent is then introduced into the trap column so that the target component in the trap column is once again eluted, and the solution containing the target component is fractionated. The fractionated solution is collected in a container and, as illustrated in Patent Document 3 below, heated with a heater, for example, so that the solvent in the solution is evaporated and a solid product of the target component is obtained.
One possible method of heating the solution containing the target component with a heater is a method of, for example, setting the driving time of the heater and driving the heater until the driving time has elapsed. However, an appropriate driving time of the heater varies depending on the type of the solvent or the target component, so there is a risk that it may not be possible to satisfactorily evaporate the solvent with a method such as that described above.
That is, when the driving time of the heater is shorter than an appropriate driving time, there is a risk that the solvent will not be completely evaporated and that it will not be possible to obtain the target component as a solid product. On the other hand, when the driving time of the heater is longer than an appropriate driving time, the target component is heated longer than is necessary even after the solvent has been completely evaporated, which leads to the risk that the target component may be transformed by oxidation or decomposition.
Therefore, as illustrated in Patent Document 4 described below, one possible method is to stop heating with a heater based on the rate of change in temperature of the container. In Patent Document 4, the temperature of a rack holding a container is detected so that the temperature of the container is indirectly detected. More specifically, the driving of the heater is controlled so that the temperature of the rack is kept constant, and heating with the heater is stopped based on the rate of change in the temperature of the rack when the solvent evaporates and vaporization heat is no longer generated (paragraphs [0017], [0026], and the like).